a surprisingly sweet sewing blog

Tag Archives: knits

I didn’t make time to blog about the projects I managed to finish during KCW, so I’ll try my best to roll them out quickly now that we have reached day 7. Starting with…….

Mis-Matched Reglan T’s

Some of you might be saying “what is mis-matching?” Its what I call it when you make outfits that go together but don’t totally match, by changing up the trim like here or having a theme fabric like these ones here and here. I absolutely love doing it and think it looks so cute ! (I will even admit it makes me smile when folding their laundry – weird I know.)

Following the KCW theme of travel, I pulled some jersey knit from the stash that has little cars on it. The accent fabric is up-cycled T’s, so I was able to utilize a few existing hems.

The pattern is Field Trip Cargo Pants and Reglan Shirt from Oliver and S. It was in size 18m-4T, so I did have to adjust it to fit my now larger boys (and realized how long I’ve been doing this sewing thing). The adjustments where easy ones just a 1\4 inch on the fold of the shirt pieces, and adding length to the bottom.

I had some major frustration with the neckline on the red shirt. The cute car fabric has minimal stretch for a knit, so even though the pattern piece had been adjusted for the added width, I didn’t compensate for the difference in stretch that ribbing would have had. I ripped the neckline out twice trying to get it to strech around evenly, then tried re-cutting a new piece. When that didn’t work I gave up on perfect. I ripped out a few inches the third time and cut the neckband to add what was needed. So there are 2 seams in the neckband and one of them is on the side not the back. Oh well embrace imperfection and move on because the boy wearing clearly loves it !

The sleeve length turned out good, I was going for a 3\4 but am happy with how they look on the boys sitting just at elbow length.

The best feature according to E is the pockets and what he can hold in them.

They had so much fun taking these photos. I usually have to bribe them and struggle. I guess it helps that they were aloud to climb all over their sisters truck 😛

Mr.K was full of ideas and came up with the Run DMC style pose 🙂 and lil’ E was all about what he could put in his pocket. There are so many cute photos from my usually camera shy boys I might just do a photo- shoot post.

PS: yes those are also new shorts from KCW more posts coming on those soon, and you can check out all the fun of KCW by clicking the button below

I tried out a new pattern the perfect concert Tee, and its perfect 😉 the pattern is by dixie DYI. Its a nice flowy Tee with a high low hem. The high front is a crop length, drifting down to a nice butt covering length at the back.

Honestly I’m a bit weary of the crop top trend, I am way more comfortable in the extra long T-shirts. The concert T is a great way to lean into the trend a bit. It is very flattering, falling just above my belt and nice and flowy so my soft little belly peeks out just a bit, and um yep that is a tank top underneath, its only spring on the coast. I made this up in a size small but used the large length, being long threw the torso I adjust pretty much everything for length.

The fabric is jersey knit from my big sale binge last year. The weight is a just a tiny bit heavy for such a flowy shirt, a nice tissue knit or soft up-cycled fabric would drape a bit better. The pattern on this is just too great though, it needed to be sewn into this shirt. I wanted to finish it nicely so that it looked store bought. Using a double needle I top stitched the neckline, sleeves and hemline. The extra effort is always worth it !

Once again I’m posting long after a project has been done, worn and washed. So its not really a spring top sew along project, but this is as good a time as any to blog it don’t ya think will all the shirts posts going on. Any way I guess the good thing is that I can talk honestly about weather or not the garment works as real wearable clothing. This time its a shirt for me. I drafted the pattern off a store bought T-shirt that I love the fit of. And it turned out great (Yes the original is long sleeved too) I often alter or smoosh 2 patterns together so it was nice to see that I can do a straight copy and have it fit all yummy like the original.Its not too tight with a slight tapering in the waist area. This creates a easy fit that is still flattering to my curves.

I got this fabric during the knit sale this past summer at my local store. Click here here and here to see other projects that have come out of the same sale. I am also not letting myself buy any other knits until I’ve sew threw a bunch of my stash. Sew many plans sew little time. 🙂

Anyway the fabric is great, its a ribbed knit with lots of stretch, so I used a zig-zag stitch and the serger. The bottom hem is not hemmed at all, its a strait serge left raw. It looks finished and its fast. I do tend to cut a few corners in the name of ease and speed. And on this project I cut where ever I could. I’m kinda short on long sleeved shirts in the wardrobe this winter. (told ya it was a long gone sew, its spring already)

I chose not to hem at all, it the name of ease and speed. Instead on the cuffs and neckline I used some leftover Fold Over Elastic (FOE.) I had it kicking around from when I had made some cloth diapers. I have used it before on the boys pant legs and what not. It’s like bias tape but stretchy, and can be a great way to make something look finished with little time. Awesome right?

the circulation in my arm it cutting off aaaahhh

Wrong ! It was great for the neckline and solves some if the fussiness of broken stitches and ironing. However I made the wrists too tight, the elastic gets annoying when you push em’ up. And I do tend to push em’ up when I wash dishes, wipe up a mess…. um…. constantly. I may rip it out and hem up the sleeves regular style. In the mean time I’ve been stretching at them, hoping to relax the elastic a bit.

All in all I wear this shirt frequently, and still love it after a whole season. I plan on making a summer shirt project out of this fabric too.

I’ve been wanting to make leggings for while now. Ever since October when I made a wonder woman costume. (the blog was under a different name then) the fabric was this awesome 4 way stretch lycra. I was amazed how fast they came together, and wanted more! I new I needed a better fit than the halloween wear for one day fit.

Part of my new years resolution ( as you may know if you’ve been following ) is to learn how to use my mom’s old serger that she gifted to me. Leggings are a perfect project, as the overlock stitch will help keep the stretchy seams intact. I had some thread breaking issues again. Do you know if thread wears out? I also re-threaded just threw the tension disks. By making slack, unthreading and then re-threading threw. I wonder if there is little bits of dust in there….anyway

Due to the stretchiness of the fabric I needed to play a bit with the fit. I also had this disaster occur with the waistband lol but hey its all about the learning curve here in the lemon bowl. And my serger is a steep curve 🙂 I wasn’t able to nicely serge on the waistband, as I have not yet mastered the stretching of fabric threw Betty’s feed dogs. If you look close you will also see that I sewed wrong to write side lol. After ripping it out I sewed it on my good old regular machine, then finished the edge.

Any way I whipped them up in 3 short sewing sessions (including the pattern draft and fixing ). And like them more than some of my store bought due to the weight of the fabric. I would really love to try this in a light interlock. How yummy would that be.

The photos were taken on the second day in a row of wearing them, and they are still looking snug and nice. I still want to tweak the fit for next time, I want them just a tad tighter threw the top of the thigh and a bit shorter back rise. Also I some how made them way too long 😛 I do really like the fit threw the calf and knee. That was were the halloween costume was almost cutting off circulation.

I’ll leave you with this photo cuz I think its funny how long the legging are. They will probably stay too long for a while, I get all stressed thinking of cutting them, for fear they will be lop sided.